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Talk about a fashion victim: You reach for your favorite cashmere, and darned if it isn't full of holes. You've suffered an attack of the clothing moth, which has plagued humans for millennia, evolving to thrive in the dark recesses of a loaded closet, where hungry larvae seem to make a beeline for the good stuff. "The fondness they exhibit nowadays for tailor-made suits and other expensive products of the loom is simply an illustration of their ability to keep pace with man," The New York Times moaned—in 1898. Anti-moth measures haven't changed much since then, either. Here's why.

How they blend inJust ¼-inch long and tinted golden brown, webbing moths and their casemaking cousins flutter under human radar. They home in on sweat-, urine-, and food-stained fibers—and each other. Females lay up to 300 eggs, which hatch in heated rooms in about two weeks, becoming larvae that mature in 35 to 90 days. Adults emerge one to four weeks later, hungry for love in a dark, fiber-filled place. Moth traps baited with pheromones can catch male webbing moths, but they won't end an infestation.

What they likeFur, wool, mohair, and hair are beloved by the moths' spawn: those tiny, starving larvae. (When they aren't procreating, the adults aren't the problem.) Moths thrive in dark, still chambers, aided by dust bunnies and hiding places like cracks along baseboards. Vacuuming and sunlight help protect wool carpets, but not if you roll them up and put them in moth heaven: the attic.

What won't do the jobCedar, lavender, cloves... none are strong enough to repel the little devils. Mothballs work if used as directed but expose you to toxic naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene fumes.

Think fire and iceCenturies after the first clotheshorse put pinholes and pests together, textile scientists are still wrestling with the challenge of getting moths to move along. Some swear by heat ("baking" clothes in a warm over for at least 30 minutes), others by a deep chill (bagging and freezing them for a week)—or both. (See "Bug off!" at right.) And have you heard the one about placing clothes inside a sack along with a chunk of dry ice?